|
|
I would like to propose a little test for all of us to take. Start when you get up in the morning. You will need something to write with and something to write on. Notice I didn’t say pen and paper, since some of us use other means to write, such as a computer or even a recorder.
Here is the test: Every time you use any adaptive equipment, mark down what it is. I myself started out with a pen with a special grip. While dressing, I used a button-hook for my shirt buttons, a device for my socks, and elastic shoe [...]
People with SCI/D often develop very strong bonds with their “equipment,” because it is so much more than mere nuts and bolts—it is an essential tool for our hard-won independence. Regrettably, access to the tools we need—particularly power wheelchairs and scooters—cannot be taken for granted and this access is currently under assault by ever-more restrictive policies from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Universities to Study Wheelchair Transportation Safety
The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and three other university partners have been awarded a $4.5 million five-year federal grant to continue research on transportation safety and usability for people in wheelchairs.
The U.S. Department of Education’s National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research has renewed funding of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Wheelchair Transportation Safety (RERC WTS), a partnership headed by UMTRI that also includes the universities of Pittsburgh, Louisville and Colorado.
The partnership was originally formed in 2001 to advance the safety, usability and independence of the large proportion of 1.7 million wheelchair [...]
Dean Kamen invented what he calls “the world’s most sophisticated robot” to transport people with mobility impairments places they never thought they could go.
By Lori A. Wood
A wonder of modern technology, the Independence® iBOT® 4000 Mobility System, allows people with disabilities to go places that they may have never imagined. “It took some of the smartest engineers in the world about ten years to make that happen,” says Dean Kamen, founder and president of DEKA Research and Development in Manchester, New Hampshire.
“I spent my whole life building medical equipment,” Kamen says. This equipment included wearable infusion pumps for [...]
Randy Kwapis’s Action Chair, which he invented for his son to play on grass and other difficult surfaces, is a modern marvel.
By Michael Lee
Matthew Kwapis sits in the chair his father Randy designed to enable him to play on grass and other surfaces unusable by ordinary wheelchairs.
Randy Kwapis, 43, inventor of the Action Chair, a custom-built everyday sports wheelchair, was one of the 25 semi-finalists in this year’s Invent Now Challenge, sponsored by the History Channel program Modern Marvels. “Everyday” inventors from across the country submit their inventions in hopes of becoming the “Modern Marvel of the Year.” [...]
We’ve come a long way, baby, from the “devices” of yesteryear to today’s technology.
By Terry Moakley
Was assistive technology really around 60 years ago, Santa? Yes Virginia, it was, but we didn’t call it “assistive technology” way back then. We just called it a “device.”
One of the earlier devices was developed by one of our predecessor organization’s charter members, John M. Price, and it was an innovation based on need. You see, Mr. Price was also the original editor of The Paraplegia News magazine, and in its December 1946 issue, there is an illustration and brief description of this unique device [...]
By Lori A. Wood
“My son, Tom, was the company’s founder,” says Margaret Street, president of SEMCO, which stands for Street Electric Manufacturing Company, LLC, of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. “He passed away in June 2001 and that’s when I took over as the single member of the company.
“Tom had suffered an accident in October 1988, which left him a C-4 quadriplegic,” Street continues. “When he was in rehab, they didn’t have anything to enable quads to use a computer mouse, so he went looking around to see what was available in stores. He finally found a little flat mouse that a company called Interlink [...]
By Jean L. Minkel, MA, PT
How you get around has a big impact on what you can do and where you can go.
Many people who have lived with a disability for a long time have found that careful consideration of the best way to get around has been a key to their independence. For some people the solutions have included multiple devices—different environments, different devices—a manual wheelchair in the home, a scooter for work, and even a handcycle for exercise.
Mobility assistance equipment comes in many forms, shapes and sizes. The options include:
• Assistive devices for ambulation-items to help you [...]
By Josie Kelly
As the holidays approach, most of us fondly remember the games and toys of our childhood. The anticipation of tearing open wrapping paper to find a new toy, and the pleasure of mastering the new skills such toys represent, are universal. Children with disabilities are no different, even if the toys we found under our wrapping paper weren’t always the same as the toys of other kids. While “Big Wheels” were making a commotion roaming the sidewalks in my neighborhood in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was making my own noise on my “Sit ‘n’ Spin” and mesmerizing [...]
By Tamar Asedo Sherman
Thanks to technology, there are many devices that can increase, maintain or improve the functional capabilities of people with spinal cord impairments, enabling us to live independently and even return to work. If you can move anything—a finger, your mouth, your eyelid or your head—you can operate a computer. Technology is progressing so fast that there are few limitations that can’t be overcome.
By John M. Williams
Three times within the past year, I have witnessed the new Microsoft Windows Vista‘s accessibility features being demonstrated. Each time increased my appreciation of the Windows upgrade, which is due for general release just after the New Year, and I now rate the new accessibility features higher than the original Windows accessibility features.
Windows Vista includes a new Ease of Access center (located in the Control Panel), where anyone can turn on accessibility settings and tools. Users can enter the Center by selecting Winkey (between the control and alt keys on PC keyboards) +U. A questionnaire helps users [...]
Jonathan Wolpaw, MD, surveyed the state of brain-computer interfaces
in his keynote address to the American Paraplegia Society.
Spinal cord health care professionals make this year’s conference in Las Vegas one to remember, setting the bar high for next year’s meetings in Orlando.
By Rob Ingraham and Chris Pierson
“I never thought I would wax sentimental about the Riviera,” said American Paraplegia Society (APS) President Indira Lanig, MD, at the beginning of the first session of APS’s 52nd conference at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas last month, “but this week, I do find myself waxing sentimental. Coming here [...]
Some states have been slow to ensure that voters with disabilities have equal access to the process.
By John P. Herrion
A ballot-marking device for people with disabilities is demonstrated at United Spinal headquarters. All voting machines are required to be accessible after January 1, 2007.
In 2002, President Bush signed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) into law. HAVA provides federal funding for states to improve election administration and replace outdated voting systems. Its provisions require education for voters concerning voting procedures, rights and technology, and training for poll workers and volunteers to effectively administer the voting process. Other obligations under [...]
By Ziggi Landsman
More and more powered wheelchair and scooter users are pushing their chairs out to the limit and most often they are coming up short. By necessity, power wheelers require increased range (distance) from their wheelchair systems these days. But being able to go long distances if you don’t have the juice to get back sure as heck will make you more dependent than independent.
Diminished battery life and decreased range are an unpleasant power-wheeling fact of life. Over time and as the batteries and other system components get worn, your range may diminish. Or, your wheelchair may never have had the [...]
Device Enables Man with SCI to Control Objects with Thoughts
The journal Nature recently reported that scientists at Brown University in Rhode Island have successfully enabled an individual with spinal cord injury (SCI) to control objects cognitively using a sensor implanted in his brain.
Previous research with brain implants had succeeded in enabling users to move a cursor on a computer screen horizontally, but, John P. Donoghue, a professor of neuroscience at Brown University and co-founder of Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems of Foxborough, Massachusetts, was the first to lead a team of researchers in advancing control beyond horizontal cursor movement.
Donoghue implanted electrodes [...]
By Ziggi Landsman
Trying to decide on a new cushion lends itself well to confusion and anxiety. There are a large number of cushions being offered up in every conceivable shape, size, and form. While it’s impossible to answer the age-old question of which cushion is the best, it’s possible, at least, to set you on a path to finding a better one.
Before deciding on which cushion to lay your hard-earned dollars and your butt down on, you should familiarize yourself with some of the products that are available. Get on the Internet and browse the cushion manufacturers’ pages. Stick with manufacturers [...]
You might like taking shortcuts around sidewalk traffic and using your power chair on the road, but-for safety’s sake-adapt your chair!
By Ziggi Landsman
For years the average power wheelchair speed was somewhere around 4.5 mph. Nowadays, many scooters and chairs can pump out close to 7 or 8 mph with a number of them getting to 10 mph and above.
Some other things haven’t changed. Many areas still do not have good curb cuts (or any), or for that matter there may be no sidewalks at all. Then there is human nature. That hasn’t changed either. You have the [...]
By John M. Williams
For 14 years, I have dealt with the severe pain associated with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), a condition in which the median nerve is compressed as it passes through the narrow carpal tunnel in the wrist. Since the median nerve provides sensory and motor functions to the thumb and three middle fingers, many symptoms may result. When CTS in both of my hands is acting up, excruciating pain in the fingers, neck, back, and legs occur. Until a month ago, my CTS had not bothered me in years. Suddenly one morning, it arrived with a vengeance in both hands.
How [...]
UNITED SPINAL ACTION ALERT
On Monday, July 17, Senators Bingaman (D-NM) and Santorum (R-PA) introduced legislation to remove Medicare’s “in the home” restriction on mobility devices. Please ask your Senators to cosponsor this important legislation for people with disabilities!
Currently, Medicare will only cover mobility devices if beneficiaries need them for use inside their homes. If a beneficiary can function at home with a manual wheelchair, but needs a power wheelchair to go to work, the doctor, or the local grocery store, Medicare will only pay for a manual wheelchair. This “in the home” rule severely restricts the independence of people [...]
Congress needs to change the antiquated policy that leaves many trapped in their homes.
By Alaine Perry
Phyllis Johnson (not her real name), who is 77 years old and has multiple medical problems including heart disease and chronic leg pain, cares for her granddaughter every day while her daughter, a United Spinal employee, goes to work. Phyllis can walk well enough to get around inside her house, but she tires rapidly when she tries to walk any distance. She really needs a wheelchair to get around outside-a power wheelchair, because she is not strong enough to push a manual wheelchair herself.
Unfortunately, [...]
|
|
